How does Shakespeare engage the sympathy of the audience in the way he depicts young love in the play "Romeo and Juliet"?

In the famous balcony scene Romeo and Juliet find themselves speaking in poetry and using a lot of similes and metaphors. Also the speech of Romeo and Juliet is very love orientated yet very innocent unlike some of the speech used by Mercutio. "O speak again bright angel for thou art as glorious to this night, being o'er my head, as a winged messenger from heaven."

Romeo is a very honest character that falls in and out of love easily and because of that Mercutio teases him, but in a friendly way, "Why, is this not better than groaning for love?" This sentence from Mercutio in act 2 sc4 implies to Romeo that he I always whining and groaning about love, but Mercutio manages not to hurt Romeo's feelings because he says it in a joking way. . The way in which Romeo and Mercutio are so good friends also brings about the emotion of sympathy because in the fight scene when Mercutio is slain by Tybalt in a way it was Romeo's fault for holding him back. The circumstances are very difficult for Romeo and Juliet after because Romeo is banished. This leads to he tragic climax which definitely roses sympathy in the audience because they know that every thing could have turned out great for Romeo and Juliet if it had all gone to plan, but it didn't and they end up killing themselves because without each other they would rather die.

The story line of Romeo and Juliet is also very gripping not just the characters. This is because of the fact that it is love at first sight and the vast majority of the audience do want Romeo and Juliet's love to succeed.

The situation made in the play was made to build up sympathy in the audience. During the course of the play the love between Romeo and Juliet is a hard situation for the both of them. Already at the start the families of Romeo and Juliet are ancient rivals and enemies, but if that wasn't hard enough Romeo was banished from Verona and Juliet is unable to visit him because her father lord Capulet is possessive and she has to ask for leave if she is to exit the Capulet household.

In the days in which the play Romeo and Juliet was written by William Shakespeare different views where set on marriage and how people where treated. Her father treats Juliet throughout the play as a possession. In the play Juliet is told exactly whom she is to consider marrying and she isn't expected to disagree with the choices made. Again this brings about sympathy, but even more sympathy in the modern day because in those days people accepted the ways that people were treated.

Also women where expected to have children and be married by the early teenage years which is very different to now.

At the beginning of the play Romeo's attitude to love was almost childish, the lady Roselyn he fealt was the woman of his dreams and he had hardly ever spoken to her. In act 1 scene 1 good things are said about Romeo before he is even seen on stage and this makes the audience like Romeo even before he has appeared. Romeo's attitude to love is often mocked by mercutio and this rouses sympathy.

At the beginning of the play Juliet is immature and less focused on what she is going to do. This changes throughout the play because after she is with Romeo she becomes more mature. An example of this is when she starts to accept what her father is telling her to do and who to marry. Earlier on the play she becomes angry and shows too much emotion in front of her father and disobedience. Because of this Juliet almost gets kicked out of the house. This rouses the sympathy of the audience because they know that deep down inside Juliet's head she is trying to hide her emotions and feelings in front of her father, which in fact she does very well.

Also the fact that they are willing to die for their love is a great thing, which swings the audience in their favour. I think in my opinion that the audience is very sympathetic with Juliet because she faces all her fears in a desperate hope to see and be with her Romeo again.

Throughout the play Romeo's reputation for being a peaceful loveable character is good, however Mercutio's death made him change from someone who bottles up anger to someone who releases it. Therefore he kills Paris and Tybalt. This makes the death count high, but because the audience has so much sympathy for Romeo they tend to forget that he is capable of killing someone.

Banishment of course adds an extra twist to the play and both Romeo and Juliet are distraught after it. The audience sympathise immensely with this because they are unable to see each other.

The tragedy at the end is brought about by a misplacement of a very important letter from friar Lawrence to Romeo. This letter brings about the fate of the lovers, which of course is death. The audience sympathise greatly because they know that it would have all been all right if the letter had reached Romeo.